I first met Wendy while she was living with a psychologist in West Los Angeles. I was a Libertarian activist, then chairman of the MacBride Campaign for West Los Angeles.
We were using the psychologist's home as the headquarters for gathering signatures to get Roger MacBride on the ballot as our 1976 Presidential candidate. At about the same time Wendy started doing public speaking.
The only element that sticks in my mind was her story about her abortion, which she said took place because she was raped. Allow me to say now that I doubted it then and I still doubt it. Then, I said nothing, but I listened. Given what I heard about her personal history, living on the streets, making a living any way a pretty girl can when up against it, she could have been raped. Or a pregnancy could have resulted from a commercial transaction. Either way, as a Libertarian I withheld judgment though she offered no proof on any of her statements. No one present for her emotion packed speech would have thought of questioning her on such a personal subject. No one asked why she had not kept the fetus as evidence, as happened to my daughter.
Then, and now, I doubted her veracity. As one of the only women in the room her words did not ring true to me but I did not challenge her. It was her story, her words. But over the years I found reasons to question her character.
McElroy abruptly left the psychologist to move in with a man, George Smith, author of Atheism: The Case Against God, who left his wife for her. The circumstances, discussed widely among our mutual acquaintance, included the story Smith ripped off his wife, who did not know he was leaving until her household goods disappeared from their apartment. According to her close friends Smith moved in with nothing and begged the woman to marry him legally.
Knowing people is more than just believing what they say. Know what they do when they think no one is looking or will remember. Character matters. What you have done is the best indicator for future performance.
Wendy has written books and articles designed to sell to specific niche audiences. She positions herself as a 'feminist' but does not support the inclusion of women under the Constitution which real feminists struggled to establish throughout the 19th Century.
Allowing Wendy McElroy to use the term, 'feminist' is analogous to ignoring the theft of the term 'conservative' by such as Newt Gingrich. The profession of journalism asserts standards. Familiarize your self with what journalists are obligated to do when writing a story or expressing their opinion. This is from the ethics page for the Society of Professional Journalists. Measure McElroy against those standards. When you do you will see she is is not a journalist.
Her published books include works defending pornography for women, an interest in which women and men have very different desires. For women, harlequin romances and bodice rippers provide the needed thrill, according to the marketplace, the definitive, objective measure. Just look at how these highly repetitive works sell, a huge market. McElroy ignored the reality of our biology, choosing instead to focus on the titillating idea women want the same forms of gratification as do men. Wrong.
While calling her self a feminist McElroy ignores the topics which occupy most of the focus of women, children, making a home, their relationships with each other. Instead she writes about prostitution. In fact, every single work goes to sex. Sex sells.
I knew Wendy for many years in Los Angeles. We were not friends but saw each other at parties while I was raising five children, teaching natural child birth, running libertarian campaigns, and running the office, paid for without subsidy from the state LP. I did the fundraising myself.
Wouldn't you expect the woman to call you if she heard your daughter had been battered? With Wendy, normal standards of behavior do not apply.
Here is what McElroy had to say about my daughter.
"Even charges that are later revealed to be false can devastate the accused. Consider journalist John Fund (search), who was arrested on charges of domestic violence and publicly excoriated for sexual misconduct. The charges were later dropped."
SEE WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
Columnist Eric Alterman recently published an article entitled "Who Framed John Fund?" There, Alterman chronicled the false accusations that haunt Fund. Once a high-profile presence on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page and a frequent television commentator, Fund now writes for the WSJ's far less prestigious Opinionjournal.com (search) and is rarely on TV. "
As On his Web site, Fund posted a notarized affidavit from his accuser, stating, "Mr. Fund has not been abusive to me contrary to what I said in reports to the Jersey City police." He has also posted the transcript of a deposition in which she testifies under oath that she has "borderline personality disorder." Nevertheless, it is not clear whether Fund's career will recover.
SEE AFFIDAVITS, EMAILS BETWEEN MELINDA AND JOHN FUND, EMAILS BETWEEN MORGAN AND JOHN FUND, POLICE REPORTS, BANK RECORDS,
More coming on Wendy -
